5/8/2023 0 Comments Cassius marcellus clay sr![]() ![]() After giving a speech in Texas denouncing slavery in 1849, he singlehandedly fought off six attackers. Clay moved his printing operation to Cincinnati, continuing to edit at his Lexington office. ![]() Clay’s hubris so inflamed neighbors that while he was sick at home a mob emptied the premises. A realist, he fireproofed his print shop with iron, positioned two cannons at the door, and hung rifles on the wall. Son of a prominent area planter, Clay had freed his slaves the year before. In 1845, Cassius Marcellus Clay of Lexington proclaimed himself first to “ever beard the monster in his den,” when he founded True American, an antislavery newspaper. When in 1964 Louisville-born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr., converted to Islam, taking as his name Muhammad Ali, the 22-year-old heavyweight boxing champion was casting off a monicker made legendary by another flamboyant Kentucky fighter given to dramatic pronouncements. The Lion of White Hall at Rest: Clay in his middle years displayed no less resolve against slavery than he did as a youth. ![]()
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